Most of us want to create a better, sustainable, and more peaceful world, don’t we? One way to achieve this goal is through high-quality education on a global scale. This brings us to IB (International Baccalaureate), one of the leading educational program providers for schools all around the world. Negotiation skills for students at IB Schools can create a significant impact on achieving the learning goals of IB programs. These programs develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better world through intercultural understanding. Schools that fulfill the IB requirements are included in the scope of the IB school.
How can IB World Schools enhance their programs?
IB provides a broad, balanced and conceptual curriculum to guide IB teachers and school leaders. The flexibility of the IB framework enables educators to offer creative solutions to their students. Negotiation skills education can help teachers to expand students’ learning journey into new horizons. Negotiation skills affect many aspects of our lives, such as education, formal collaborations, sustainability, and so on. So why should every IB school teach negotiation? Let’s find out the answer together!
1. Teaching collaboration skills through negotiation courses
Collaboration skills are essential for all age groups in IB programs. The importance of soft skills and teamwork is becoming more important than ever. As the world is getting more interconnected, we need future talents with a high collaboration capacity to create value as a team. The World Economic Forum emphasizes the importance of “working with people” as a future skill, employers are also looking for talents with these characteristics. Students should develop their collaboration skills in order to be successful in academic, business, or social life, and to take effective steps in the future.
Negotiation courses for students at IB schools are very effective to teach collaboration skills. Collaboration requires joint decision-making, self-management, and in-team communication. These skills can only be developed with hands-on courses and lots of practice. In negotiation courses, students can participate in different simulations prepared with examples from daily life. They can explore solutions together with their peers. In these simulations, students learn how to expand the pie with a win-win outcome. They also learn how to communicate effectively and respect different ideas. All these exercises encourage students to collaborate and work as a team.
2. Teaching sustainability via negotiation skills
Negotiation skills for students are very useful when IB schools introduce sustainability. Teaching the fundamentals of sustainability is an important element of developing caring students who act to make a positive difference in the world. IB programs introduce students to local & global issues from a similar perspective. This awareness encourages students to focus on sustainability, global responsibility, and meaningful service to society.
For a more sustainable future, we need better negotiators to solve the complex problems of the future. Achieving sustainability is about creating solutions that work best for nature, society, and the economy. Without excellent negotiation skills, it is not possible to find a common ground that wouldn’t leave anyone behind. Sustainability is about balancing three dimensions: economic, environmental, and social sustainability.
3 dimensions of sustainability
Economic sustainability: It means balancing economic growth and generating profit while taking environmental and social impact into account.
Environmental sustainability: It covers the dimension of sustainability that is related to natural resources, ecosystem integrity, biodiversity, and carrying capacity.
Social sustainability: Social sustainability refers to societal concerns such as equity, social mobility, participation, and empowerment.
The aim of the IB programs is to educate internationally conscious individuals who are aware of the common human qualities and the task of protecting the planet. How can educators teach sustainability in a very effective way? It is possible to teach sustainability and its fields effectively through negotiation. One of the most important things in the concept of sustainability is negotiation. As you have seen above, sustainability is divided into 3 different areas and there are different groups aiming to maximize the benefit in each area. In order to bring these benefits to the optimal point, individuals should be able to understand and negotiate with each other.
IB schools can introduce Climate Negotiation courses for students to grasp the fundamental ideas of sustainability. These programs help students to explore how to reach a consensus by considering the unique concerns and needs of different parties.
3. Teaching how to negotiate across cultures for international mindedness
The international network is another key aspect of the programs in IB schools. Although the distances are getting smaller, it is still not very easy for schools and students to expand their network across borders. As Herminia Ibarra, Professor of Organizational Behavior said “Networking is a lot like nutrition and fitness: we know what to do, the hard part is making it a top priority.”
IB educators are among those who prioritize networking. For instance, all IB programs are required to provide education in more than one language because they believe that communicating in more than one language creates excellent opportunities to develop intercultural understanding. Along with learning different languages, it is also important to understand cultural dynamics in international communication. Therefore, international negotiation skills for students should be highly appreciated in IB programs.
International negotiation programs at schools bring students from different cultural backgrounds together to help them explore cultural dynamics through hands-on exercises. When students are involved in a negotiation course, they also learn communication skills such as conflict resolution, and mediation. These skills are needed in the global community to solve the issues we face today. But more importantly, hands-on negotiation programs help students make friends and build their social networks across countries.
4. Improving social and cognitive skills
Teaching negotiation skills at IB schools contributes to the development of 21st-century skills. Negotiation skills for students are not abstract concepts. The programs aim for tangible results to widen the perspectives of learners.
IB schools have an education system aimed at raising students who research, question, and think. Negotiation skills courses allow individuals to discover several social and cognitive skills. One of them is problem-solving skills. Students learn to look at problems from different perspectives with real-life case simulations. They encounter a diverse set of issues and conflicts in each simulation, so they experience active learning through critical reasoning. Moreover, these simulations assist them to increase their self-confidence and express themselves better.
This article is written by Merve Ağır. Merve is a part of the Sopu Academy team and she has been involved in Sopu Academy’s negotiation education activities for high school students all around the world.
